Air-cooling apparatus for an engine of a vehicle

ABSTRACT

The upper cylinder head portion and lower main cylinder body portion of an engine in a vehicle are provided with respective passages connected to a common blower which forces cooling air through the passages. Preferably, the air discharged from outlets in the body portion is directed against the hotter head portion to intensify the cooling thereof, and in such case an obstruction plate is placed in front of the outlets to prevent interference with the discharged air by air flowing through the engine compartment.

United States Patent Soichiro Honda Tokyo, Japan Sept. 9, 1969 Nov. 9, 1971 Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha Tokyo, Japan Sept. 9, 1968 Japan Sept. 24, 1968, Japan, No. 43/68844 Inventor Appl. No. Filed Patented Assignee Priorities AIR-COOLING APPARATUS FOR AN ENGINE OF A VEHICLE 6 Claims, 4 Drawing Figs.

U.S. Cl 180/54 A, 123/41.6,123/41.65,123/41.67,237/12.3 A 1nt.C1 B60h l/16, 860k 11/06 Field of Search 180/54 A,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 957,253 5/1910 Prescott. 237/123 A 1,598,867 9/1926 Lundelius 123/4l.65 2,001,029 5/1935 Kuiick et a1 180/56 2,182,866 12/1939 Gabrielson 123/4167 UX 2,766,836 10/1956 Fessia 180/54 A 2,969,780 1/1961 Wyczalek H l23/41.65 X

Primary Examiner-Benjamin Hersh Assistant Examiner-Milton L. Smith Attorney-Waters, Roditi, Schwartz and Nissen ABSTRACT: The upper cylinder head portion and lower main cylinder body portion of an engine in a vehicle are provided with respective passages connected to a common blower which forces cooling air through the passages. Preferably, the air discharged from outlets in the body portion is directed against the hotter head portion to intensify the cooling thereof, and in such case an obstruction plate is placed in front of the outlets to prevent interference with the discharged air by air flowing through the engine compartment.

PATENTEUuuv 9 197i SHEET 1 BF 3 INVENTOR BY fin'ckdw Mam/A PATENTEDNUV 9 l9?! SHEET 2 BF 3 INVENTOR ATM/ auda- AIR-COOLING APPARATUS FOR AN ENGINE OF A VEHICLE BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to apparatus for the air-cooling of an internal combustion engine in a motorcar.

According to this invention, such an internal combustion engine is provided with respective cooling air passages in its cylinder main body portion and its cylinder head portion, and these two passages are in communication with a single common air blower for being supplied with forced cooling air thereby.

It is usual in an internal combustion engine that its cylinder head portion reaches a higher temperature than its cylinder main body portion and is liable to become overheated.

In view of this, according to a feature of this invention, in such an apparatus as above, the forced cooling air passage for the cylinder main body portion is open at its outlet and faces the lower surface of the cylinder head portion to cool the same with air discharged from the passage of the main body. In this case, it is preferable, if the engine is placed in the path of flowing air caused by the movement of the car to provide an obstruction plate in front of the outlet opening of the passage in the body portion and extending across the entire airflow path.

According to a further feature of this invention, the amount of air passing through the passage of the cylinder head portion is larger than the amount of air passing through the passage of the cylinder main body portion to effect more intense cooling of the hotter head portion.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a side view, partly in section, of one embodiment according to this invention,

FIG. 2 is a front view, partly in section, of a portion thereof broken in length,

FIG. 3 is a sectional plan view, with parts omitted, of the same, and

FIG. 4 is a side view, partly in section, of another embodiment according to this invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Referring to the drawings, especially to FIGS. 1 to 3, numeral I denotes an engine compartment provided at the front portion of a motorcar, numeral 2 denotes a passenger compartment provided at the rear of the engine compartment, and numeral 3 denotes an internal combustion engine in the engine compartment 1 for powering the motorcar. The engine 3 is a multiple cylinder type in which several cylinders are arranged in the lateral direction of the car body. The engine compartment 1 has a number of openings 5 in its front surface wall 4, so that airflow produced by the running of the car, passes through the openings 5 onto the engine 3 at the front surface thereof for cooling the same. In other words, the engine 3 is positioned within the airflow passage 6 in the engine compartment.

The engine 3 comprises, as is conventional, a crank chamber portion 3a at the bottom thereof, a cylinder main body portion 312 at the middle thereof, and a cylinder head portion 3c at the top thereof. The outer surface of the cylinder head portion 3c is constructed to form a forced cooling air passage 9 comprising inner and outer walls 7 and 8, and similarly the outer surface of the cylinder main body portion 3b is formed with a forced cooling air passage 12 comprising inner and outer walls 10 and 11. These passages 9 and 12 are in communication at their respective end openings 13 and 14 with a single common air blower l5 driven by the engine 3, and this blower I5 is in turn in communication with an air intake opening 16 in the front surface wall 4 of the engine compartment. Upon operation of the blower 15, external air is drawn in through the air intake opening 16 and is forcedly supplied through each inlet opening I3 and 14 to each forced cooling air passage 9 and 12 for air-cooling each cylinder portion 30 and 3b respectively. The passage 9 of the cylinder head portion 3c is in communication at its opposite end with outlet opening 20 with the interior of the passenger compartment 2 via a conduit 17 having a valve 21, so that the heated cooling air is led to the interior of the passenger compartment 2 for heating purposes.

The forced cooling air passage 12 of the cylinder main body portion 312 is composed of two half portions l2a extending along the front and rear surfaces of the portion 3b in the lateral direction, and these half portions 12a are open at their top ends to be formed into outlet openings 18 facing the lower surface of the cylinder head portion 3c, so that the cooling air after passing through the passage 12, i.e. portions 12a, then flows upwardly out of the outlet openings 18 and against the overlying comparatively high-temperature cylinder head portion 3c for cooling the same. Each half portion 12a is divided at its upper part 12b into several laterally arranged small passages by a number of heat conducting plates 19 interconnected between the inner and outer walls 10 and 1], so that the cooling air supplied from the inlet opening 14 passes through the lower part 12d from one end thereof to the other and during this travel the air is distributed to each small passage 120 to flow upwards therethrough for discharge upwardly from the associated outlet opening 18.

In front of outlet openings 18 is an obstruction plate 22 extending across the air passage 6, so that the forced airflow acting on the lower surface of the cylinder head portion 30 is prevented from being disturbed by the air flowing through the engine compartment. Numeral 23 denotes a bolt for attaching the plate 22 to the cylinder head portion 3c.

Thus, in the apparatus according to the invention, the cylinder head portion and the cylinder main body portion are provided with respective passages for the flow of forced cooling air, so that these portions can be individually air-cooled, and the apparatus is simple and economical because only a single air blower is used for the two passages. Additionally, the outlet of the forced cooling air passage for the cylinder main body portion faces the lower surface of the cylinder head portion, so that the cooling air after having cooled the comparatively low-temperature cylinder main body portion then acts on the comparatively high-temperature cylinder head portion for additional cooling thereof to intensify the cooling effect on that portion. In the event that the cylinder head portion has a combustion chamber or an exhaust manifold at its lower surface portion, whereby it is at an especially high temperature at that portion, the cooling of the lower surface portion is extremely advantageous and overheating of the cylinder head portion can be effectively prevented. Additionally, by positioning the engine in the airflow passage through the engine compartment and by providing the obstruction plate ahead of the outlet opening, the forced cooling air discharged from the outlet opening is not influenced by the flowing air, and the cooling effect achieved by the forced cooling air is not obstructed.

The cylinder head portion 3c can also be cooled by the arrangement shown in FIG. 4, wherein the same numerals have been applied to the same structure as in FIGS. 1-3. In FIG. 4, the amount of air passing through the passage 12 of the cylinder head portion 3c is made larger than the amount of air passing through the passage 14 of the cylinder main body portion 3b, by means of a constriction 24 placed in passage 14.

In FIG. 4 the outlet opening 18 of the passage 14 opens laterally for side discharge but the passage 14 can be modified to direct discharged air against the lower surface of the cylinder head portion 3c as in the embodiment of FIGS. 1 to 3.

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for cooling an engine of a vehicle having a main cylinder body portion and a cylinder head portion, said body portion and head portion being provided with respective passages, a single air blower means connected in common with said passages for forcing cooling air therethrough, said passage extending through said body portion having outlets facing said head portion directing air passing through said body portion against the head portion, the lower surface of said cylinder head portion being extended so as to face the outlets of the air passage portion of said cylinder body portion so as to cause air discharged from said last-mentioned outlets to strike against the lower surface of the cylinder head portion for effectively cooling said head portion.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said vehicle has an engine compartment at the front thereof with an inlet for air for passage over the engine to cool the same, and an bstruction plate in front of said outlets from said passage through the body portion to prevent disturbance of the cooling air flowing through said outlets by the air flowing through the engine compartment.

3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 comprising means for varying the relative rates of flow of air through the respective passages.

4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3 wherein said means for varying the relative rates of flow comprises a constriction at the inlet to the passage to the body portion for reducing the airflow thereto, while the airflow to the passage in the cylinder portion is increased.

5. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said engine extends laterally in said vehicle and said passage in the body portion has a lateral inlet extending the length of the body portion and means defining upward flow passages leading from the lateral inlet to the head portion lying thereabove.

6. Apparatus as claimed in claim 5 wherein said means defining upward flow passages comprises spaced heat-conductive plates.

t i I. i '0' 

1. Apparatus for cooling an engine of a vehicle having a main cylinder body portion and a cylinder head portion, said body portion and head portion being provided with respective passages, a single air blower means connected in common with said passages for forcing cooling air therethrough, said passage extending through said body portion having outlets facing said head portion directing air passing through said body portion against the head portion, the lower surface of said cylinder head portion being extended so as to face the outlets of the air passage portion of said cylinder body portion so as to cause air discharged from said last-mentioned outlets to strike against the lower surface of the cylinder head portion for effectively cooling said head portion.
 2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said vehicle has an engine compartment at the front thereof with an inlet for air for passage over the engine to cool the same, and an obstruction plate in front of said outlets from said passage through the body portion to prevent disturbance of the cooling air flowing through said outlets by the air flowing through the engine compartment.
 3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 comprising means for varying the relative rates of flow of air through the respective passages.
 4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3 wherein said means for varying the relative rates of flow comprises a constriction at the inlet to the passage to the body portion for reducing the airflow thereto, while the airflow to the passage in the cylinder portion is increased.
 5. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said engine extends laterally in said vehicle and said passage in the body portion has a lateral inlet extending the length of the body portion and means defining upward flow passages leading from the lateral inlet to the head portion lying thereabove.
 6. Apparatus as claimed in claim 5 wherein said means defining upward flow passages comprises spaced heat-conductive plates. 